A Late Afternoon Song
by SeptimusMagistos
Summary: Jeremie's had some bad experiences with techno. Perhaps it's time for a good one. JxA fluff.


I do not own Code Lyoko, its setting, its characters, or anything else about it.

Jeremie looked up at Aelita's smiling face. She was always smiling these days. And her chipper mood pleased Jeremie to no end. Simply put, when she was happy he was happy too.

"Jeremie?" came a gentle question.

"Huh?" He looked up to see Aelita's face wearing a chiding grin, realizing that she'd said something to him.

"Sorry." He apologized for his lack of attention. Well, he _had_ been paying attention, just not to her words. He'd been too busy studying her lovely smile.

"Head in the clouds again, Jeremie?" Her smile grew even wider. "I was just saying that I'd like to show you something after school's done, so if you could meet me in the courtyard?"

"Oh. Oh, yes, of course." Jeremie nodded enthusiastically.

"Great!" Aelita beamed brighter still as the ball rang.

Jeremie spent the rest of the day wondering just what exactly Aelita had to show him. It couldn't be anything bad, he was sure. Aelita was much too happy. And if there was one thing Jeremie learned about Aelita it was that she wanted nothing but good for him. Still, he couldn't help being nervous. He just kept wondering until the final bell rang. Within minutes Jeremie walked up to the designated spot, but Aelita wasn't in sight.

"Aelita?" he called.

"Over here." The answer came.

"Where?"

"I'm hiding."

"Oh…okay. What did you want to show me?"

"Not yet. We have to go somewhere else for that. But first I'm going to need you to close your eyes."

"Let me guess: it's a surprise?"

"Well, of course." Aelita said happily.

Jeremie obediently closed his eyes and allowed Aelita to grasp his hand and lead him gently forward. She was the only person he would willingly allow to do this. Sure, he trusted his other friends to save the world, but he did not trust them not to do anything dumb. To put it in simple terms, he would be willing to fall asleep next to Aelita, some magic marker, and a can of shaving cream, completely secure in the knowledge that she wouldn't abuse the situation.

And while silently complimenting Aelita's responsibility Jeremie was slowly led into a building and noticed a sudden stop.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Almost." He heard some scurrying, and then a cheery "okay, now!"

Jeremie obediently opened his eyes. He realized he was in the gym. It was set up with Aelita's mixing board. The lights were fairly low and there was a single chair standing near the stage. Aelita herself had assumed the DJ position and was wearing the widest grin Jeremie had ever seen. She was also wearing a beautiful white dress, all lacey and flowing. He gaped, wondering when she got it.

"What's going on?" he was forced to ask.

"Think of it as a private concert." Answered Aelita.

"Huh?"

"Well, it's just that I know I had to skip out on some stuff because of techno in the past and there may be bad memories associated with it. So I thought it might be fun if we did something techno-related like this just for fun. Don't you think so?"

"Anything you want, Aelita." Answered Jeremie happily. Actually, he rather approved of this plan.

Jeremie sat in the chair, looking up at Aelita, who never looked as angelic as she did right then. He thought her dress was a rather more fitting outfit for her than the skull T-shirt they'd made her wear last time. Lit up by the stage effects her face appeared soft and ethereal. Her delicate fingers descended onto the controls and gently moved them. Right away a lively melody picked up. Guided by Aelita's skilled touch, the music changed and flexed as different songs seamlessly blended into each other. But though her fingers ran all over the board, her gaze hardly ever touched it. Instead, her eyes were mostly frozen to Jeremie's face. This was not doing anything to make his complexion less red.

Time passed. Jeremie wasn't certain of how much. The whole experience just felt surreal, like something he might dream of after falling asleep in front of his computer. But as the final notes faded out and he became aware of the rest of the world again, he was sure it was real.

"How was that?" Aelita asked, looking at him with a hopeful look.

"Wonderful." Was all that he could answer.

"I'm glad!"

In fact Aelita was so glad that she moved forward and hugged him. Though her natural reaction was to just keep holding on, she reluctantly counted to five (very slowly) before letting go. It was probably a very good thing that she did, since Jeremie, already weakened by her concert, was starting to sway.

"Well, good night." Aelita whispered. Then, because sometimes you have to do what you have to do, she leaned forward and gave Jeremie a very small peck on the lips before running off giggling.

Jeremie touched his lips in wonder. Then, as an experiment, he tried to think about techno. Before, it always came with some mixed feelings. But now all he could see was Aelita surrounded by light, doing something just for him. All that he could hear was the music. And all he could feel was her closeness and her delicate touch. From now on techno held nothing but warm memories for him.


End file.
